New federal housing investments are ‘not ambitious enough,’ says Mayor Olivia Chow

Toronto urgently needs more money to alleviate the dire housing crisis, Chow tells reporters after release of the federal fall economic statement

Thestar.com
Nov. 22, 2023
David Rider, Alyshah Hashman

There was no holiday cheer for Toronto in the restrained fall fiscal update delivered Tuesday by federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Mayor Olivia Chow told reporters at city hall, after the release of the economic statement, that she welcomes housing creation funds but that Torontonians, in the grips of a dire housing crisis, need more federal cash to flow now.

“There’s a plan there, it’s promising -- but the people need more, faster,” Chow said, calling federal investments unambitious even as homeless shelters are packed, winter cold is coming and a refugee claimant recently died in a tent in Mississauga.

Toronto has been going cap in hand to Ottawa seeking funding for Chow’s ambitious $36-billion housing plan and to meet the rapidly rising shelter needs of refugees.

The new funding includes $15 billion in low-interest loans starting in 2025, an expansion of an existing program to support the construction of rental homes, and $1 billion for non-profit, co-op and public housing initiatives that will “build more than 7,000 new homes by 2028.”

But none of it is specifically earmarked for Toronto, which aims to build 65,000 new rental homes over the next seven years amid a budget crisis that has the city facing a projected $1.5 billion shortfall for 2024.

Chow said the money to build rentals, non-profits and co-ops won’t flow until 2025 but Toronto urgently needs the expected 700 units its share could create.

Co-op project proponents alone have 600 units ready to go once funding is secured, the mayor added, while Indigenous housing providers are also eager to build. A federal plan to spur housing creation on public land, similar to a Toronto initiative, is welcome, she said, “but unfortunately it’s not ambitious enough.”

Freeland’s update did not say when, or if, Toronto will get the roughly $500 million it seeks from the federal $4-billion housing accelerator fund. Housing Minister Sean Fraser has travelled across Canada announcing cash for other municipalities including Brampton, Vaughan, Calgary and Halifax.

Asked why Toronto’s accelerator funding wasn’t announced Tuesday, Chow archly replied: “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask the finance minister who lives in Toronto.”

Freeland, the Liberal MP for University-Rosedale, has, in recent days, stood beside Chow at several announcements of already pledged funding for Toronto.

The city, province and feds have spent several weeks in a working group that is expected by the end of November to release recommendations for a “new deal” for Toronto aimed at finally bringing long-term financial sustainability to Toronto.